APATHY

Topping the list of challenges faced by pastors in a recent Lifeway Research study of 1,000 pastors was this: 

• People’s apathy or lack of commitment

75% of pastors polled indicated their flock's apathy was a significant challenge to them. 

3 out of every 4 pastors!

A word of advice to pastors: Guard yourselves. Your attitudes and your words. This frustration over your congregation's apathy can leak into your sermons. I have heard it happen plenty of times.

It reveals itself in condescension. And complaining. And assuming. The pastor may end up preaching only to the uncommitted, leaving the spiritually mature unfed.

I once heard a pastor say, "People never change".

Woe to you if you preach a book that holds out the promise of transformation while resigning yourself to a belief that people's hearts are forever static. 

What do we make of the 25% who did not see their congregation's apathy as a serious challenge?

Maybe some segment of those pastors have such low expectations that they aren't bothered. Maybe they quit asking for commitment years ago.

Or maybe they have so many other problems that apathy just doesn't rank in their top 20. 

But I have to believe that a large part of that 25% isn't bothered by their flock's apathy precisely because their flock is engaged and ever-growing in their commitment to Christ and His Kingdom.

Is there a secret anti-apathy recipe?

I am sure this is a gross oversimplification, but what if those pastors are ...

Preaching the whole gospel?

Expecting transformation?

Discipling individuals?

Calling out sin?

While also ...

Accepting that there are tares among the wheat and that's just the way it's always going to be?